


Camp is Fun I Swear

by down_into_underland



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi, Pidge is a little shit, Summer Camp AU, Trans Pidge, only slight klance, the whole squad is at sleep away camp together, there's lots of bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7614109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/down_into_underland/pseuds/down_into_underland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lake Lion Castle: a two month long sleep away camp for campers of all ages! Allura and her best friend Shiro have their hands full with being the camp counselors in charge of a certain rambunctious group of teens. Hunk seems to always be getting roped into some scheme of Pidge or Lance's, Keith and Lance might just kill each other by the end of this summer, and how come Pidge is never where's he's supposed to be? </p>
<p>Allura and Shiro think camp is the most fun they could be having this summer, even with such a hectic group of campers. Really, they swear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Introduction

            Allura smiled down at the many heads below from her position at the top of large grassy hill. She took a deep breath, taking in all the familiar sensations of summer around her. With her hair pulled back, and her black camp t-shirt with the words “Senior Counselor” spelled out on the back, Allura was very excited for this summer to start. No, excited simply wasn’t a strong enough word to describe how Allura was feeling right now looking down at all the young campers she would be guiding through the magical experience that was Lake Lion Castle.

            Lake Lion Castle was a large and crystal clear lake located at the base of a small mountain surrounded by a forest full of wildlife. A large clearing at one end of the lake was home to the lake’s namesake, a set of old ruins where the Lion Castle once stood. The ruins were popular with the campers due to their maze like set up and the many remains of lion statues scattered around. In this same clearing were four cabin areas, all separated by different parts of the ruins.

            Towards the back of the clearing, furthest from the ruins were the Cadets’ cabins. The Cadets were the campers between the ages of seven and ten, and the youngest of all the campers here. In front of those cabins, separated by a cluster of fallen columns, were the Alteans’ cabins. This was where Allura’s cabin was as she was one of the counselors in charge of this age group. The Alteans were for campers between the ages of 11 and 14. Next to the Alteans’ cabins was a large open area with the mess hall, administrative building, picnic areas, and different outdoor games for any of the campers to use. This area was usually referred to as the common area. Finally, at the edge of the forest and behind the administrative building and five toppled over stone lions was the Paladins’ cabins. This last area was for the oldest campers between the ages of 15 and 18. These cabins were the nicest cabins because there were never as many campers in this age group, so there were fewer cabins and more room to renovate them.

            Allura had been going to this camp for as long as she could remember, and that would be because her father, Alfor, was the founder of the Lake Lion Castle. Though Alfor had passed away a couple of years ago, the camp continued to run without a hitch and it was Allura’s dream to take over and run the camp as her father had. That was why each summer when she stood atop this hill leading down to the common area, her heart filled with pride and so much excitement for what amazing memories would be created this summer.

            “Instead of watching all of the campers, why don’t you actually go down and say hi to some of them?” Allura turned and smiled to the voice that had come up from behind her. Now standing next to her was her long time best friend, and fellow senior counselor, Shiro.

            “You know I always need to come up here before camp starts. It’s my tradition.” Allura smiled brightly and Shiro returned the brightness right back.

            “I know, why else would I come up here to look for you?”

            “Good point. Well then, come on then! Let’s go greet our new campers! Did you find out which campers are in your cabin?” Allura asked as Shiro and her began their trek down the hill. Every single cabin had a counselor within the cabin as to prevent anyone from leaving the cabins past curfew. Each cabin was also partnered with another cabin of the opposite gender so the cabins and counselors have the opportunity to work together during events and activities.

            “Yeah I got my cabin list this morning. Of course despite me warning them, they put Keith and Lance in the same cabin. Again. Lance’s friend Hunk is also in there. I’m lucky to have gotten one of the three people rooms. What about you?” Shiro had  the great pleasure of being the counselor in Keith and Lance’s cabin for the past two years, and each summer he swore they got closer and closer to killing each other.

            “I actually don’t know who’s in my cabin yet. But I do know that I’m in a cabin of five people, so I’m sure it’ll be quite the adventure.” Allura laughed lightheartedly. The idea of spending two months every night with five tween girls wasn’t really her idea of fun, but it was camp, and Allura loved almost every part of camp. Almost.

            As the two counselors came down to the crowded area, both were assaulted by many different returning campers saying hello to their former counselors. Allura always felt a pang of pity for the poor parents sending their kids away for the summer for the first time, but it was always nice to see familiar parents waving goodbye knowing their children were in good hands.

            As Shiro was greeting another new family and children, he suddenly heard shouting from nearby, and he wasn’t the only one. Many of the nearby campers, counselors, and parents turned their heads towards the shouting. Shiro had a bad feeling in his gut about the shouting and pushed his way through the crowd towards the two voices. He wasn’t shocked at who he found at the center of all the noise.

            There at the center of everyone’s attention, was Keith and Lance arguing and shouting about Lance’s jacket and Keith’s hair. None of this was new. It was the same argument every summer started off with, it just grew louder each time.

            “My jacket isn’t stupid! It’s not anything like your ugly mullet!”

            “My hair is fine shut up! And why did you even bring a jacket here? It’s the middle of summer and it’s going to be 90 degrees out half the time!”

            “It’s a stylistic choice! Besides it gets cold at night sometimes. And if ‘fine’ means the ugliest fu-”

            “Lance!” Shiro shouted, interrupting the two boys argument and slapping a hand over the loud teens mouth.

            “Yeah Lance, watch your language. Really, how could you be so stupid?” Keith was snickering behind a confident smirk and Shiro could actually feel Lance growl angrily from behind his hand.

            “Both of you knock it off! The summer just started and you two are already off to a bad start.” Shiro pushed the two boys apart after releasing Lance, who, upon finally realising who it was the interrupted them, decided it was time to tackle Shiro into a hug.

            “Shiro! What’s up man? Are you in my cabin again? Oh please tell me this loser isn’t our cabin again.” Lance groaned dramatically as he motioned to Keith who stuck his tongue out childishly at the other boy. Shiro hugged the teen back and smiled somewhat defeatedly.

            “Yes I’m your counselor again, and of course you and Keith are in the same cabin, why would the board members ever listen to my advice?”

            “What?! I’m stuck with this jerk for two months again?!” It was Keith to cry out this time and of course this started a whole new argument between the two boys. With a low sigh, Shiro along with everyone else around decided it was best to just let the two boys blow off steam for now.  

            It was then that the familiar screech of the out of date loud speakers rang through the common area and all eyes turned towards the small stage set up near the mess hall. On the stage was the director of the camp and some of the older camp workers. In front of the stage were multiple tables with folders laid out and camp counselors behind them ready for the camp to start.

            Shiro found Allura and together they stood and listened to the director give his annual beginning of summer speech and instructed the campers to all find their folder grouped by age and alphabetically. After the campers all had their folders, the campers and counselors began to divide into their three groups and head to their cabins. With a quick goodbye, Shiro ran off to go find his cabin, and Allura began making her way to meet the kids in her cabin as well. However, on the way to her cabin, Allura happened to walk by the counselor’s recreation cabin and see a small figure crouched by the door, peering into the cabin.

Curious, Allura walked up behind the small figure who she now realized was definitely _not_ a counselor.

“Excuse me? What are you doing here?” The camper kneeling in front of Allura jumped at the sound of her voice and fell onto their side before scrambling to stand up.    

            “Um, I was just, uh…..” Scratching at the back of their head, the camper tripped over their words as Allura looked down on them like a parent would look down on a child caught stealing from a cookie jar.

            “Why were you trying to sneak into the counselor’s cabin?”

            “I was just looking in here to see what’s inside! I’m sorry, this is my first year here so I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to be in here. My name is Pidge by the way, what’s your name?” Pidge smiled innocently up at Allura who was quite taken back by the sudden mood change. She thought Pidge was quite polite, but something about that all too innocent smile made Allura suspicious. But if they really were a new camper, it would make sense they might be curious about what was in the recration cabin. But then why would they be crouching down like they were hiding?

“It’s nice to meet you Pidge. I’m Allura, and this cabin is for counselors only, but if you need help finding your own cabin I’ll be more than happy to help!” Allura smiled brightly and watched as Pidge hopped down the stairs of the cabin.

            “Thanks Allura, but I’m sure I’ll find it on my own!” And with that Pidge was running off at full speed leaving Allura behind somewhat confused at the odd teen she just encountered. Allura didn’t have time to think about it too much though, because she had her own cabin she needed to go and meet. With newfound excitement Allura bounded off to meet her new roommates for the next two months.

* * *

 

            He really should stop being so surprised to walk into a cabin full of shouting. After all, with Keith and Lance in the same room for so long, arguments were a daily occurrence.

            Shiro had walked into his cabin with a smile on his face that quickly faded when he walked into Keith and Lance arguing over who got the single bed. This was Shiro’s first time being in a three camper room so he took the time to look around the newly renovated cabin.

            The cabin was a lot more spacious than the previous cabins Shiro had stayed in. To the right of the door was a short hallway with four doors. On one side of the hallway were two showers, and across from them were two separate bathrooms with the sinks and toilets. The main area of the cabin was a square shape a short half wall separating the top right corner away from the rest. This corner had a single bed with a separate closet and nightstand that doubled as a small dresser. This area was for Shiro since he was the counselor in charge of the cabin. The other area for the campers had one single bed against the southern wall with a similar nightstand to the one next to Shiro’s bed. Across from that bed on the northern wall was a set of bunk beds with a larger dresser next to it against the half wall near it. Then on the final wall to the west were three small closets as well as a small round card table with four chairs around it.

            Lance and Keith were currently at the foot of the single bed making their different arguments as to who would get to sleep in that bed rather than the bunk beds. Shiro had put his bag down on his bed and was currently watching the two boys arguing. They were completely oblivious to the fact that Shiro had even entered the room, so when the cabin door creaked open once again to reveal who Shiro assumed was the third camper in their room, the two hot headed boys didn’t stop their argument whatsoever. The bigger boy who Shiro remembered was named Hunk, seemed startled by the yelling at first but quickly recovered and just sighed as he made his way over to the single bed. While the two boys continued to bicker, Hunk placed his backpack on the nightstand dresser next to the bed, and his large duffle bag at the foot of the bed. He kicked his shoes off and plopped himself onto the bed, it was only then that Keith and Lance stopped yelling and finally noticed the two other people in the room.

            “Since you two seemed so busy with your argument, I thought it would be easiest to settle the argument by taking the bed myself, so please stop yelling.” Hunk smiled triumphantly at the now silent boys who both scowled.

            “What? Come on Hunk you can’t expect me to share a bunk bed with this asshole!”

            “Me? You’re the one who farts in his sleep!”

            “I do not! That was definitely you!”

            “Would you two knock it off?” Shiro finally cut in and all three boys turned to the counselor now standing beside them. “Since I’m supposed to be in charge here, I say Hunk gets the single bed just for being the least annoying one here right now.”

            “Fine.” Both Keith and Lance said with a pout as they moved their things to the bunk beds on the other side of the room. Shiro sighed and turned to smile at Hunk.

            “So I take it you know those two?” Shiro asked nodding over to the two boys now arguing more quietly over who gets the top bunk. Hunk laughed and nodded his head.

            “Yeah, I’ve known Lance since we were kids. We grew up together and then we started going to this camp together. Although this is actually the first time we’ve been in the same cabin together. As for Keith I really only know him through Lance, but he’s a nice guy. Although, I don’t know if I’ll be able to take two months of their arguing together.” Shiro looked over to the two boy quietly flinging insults at each other, and back to Hunk, who was just laughing at the scene before. Shiro smiled and shook his head.

            “Well one things for sure, it’s definitely going to be an interesting summer here."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first real day of camp, and Shiro has planned a morning full of fun and exciting games and team building exercises! Too bad a few campers on his team seem to bring trouble wherever they go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this written for a while but was too lazy to post it. Unbeta'd so if you see any spelling mistakes or anything like that message me so I can change it.

             Shiro loved camp. He really did, but if there was one thing he hated about going to camp each year,  it was the lumpy old beds that were in every cabin. Even in the newer cabins, they still used the same old mattresses they’ve been using for who knows how long.

             With a soft groan Shiro slowly rolled out of bed and made his way to one of the showers. He didn’t even bother to look at the clock because he already knew he was up way earlier than anyone else would be. He couldn’t help it, he was a morning person. From the past few years of rooming with Keith, Shiro knew Keith was also a bit of a morning person as well, but would still be asleep for at least a little while longer. On the other hand, he also knew they would all be dragging Lance out of bed at the last minute as he clung to his drool stained pillow. Shiro was curious as to what kind of sleeper Hunk was. Was he a heavy late sleeper like Lance? I mean they are childhood friends so who knows.

             As Shiro stepped out of the bathroom with a fresh camp t-shirt and shorts on, he noticed that Keith awake and reading on the bottom bunk. Shiro nodded to him and Keith replied with a small wave. Just then Lance let out a snore loud enough to wake up the entire camp. Keith rolled his eyes and shook his head as Shiro laughed quietly.  It was then that the alarm clock next to Shiro’s bed started to ring, signaling that it was officially seven am. Keith got up and grabbed his still packed bag and walked off to one of the bathrooms to get changed. Shiro walked over to Hunk’s bed.

             “Come on Hunk, breakfast is starting and we have our first activity at eight.” Shiro expected some kind of resistance, but was pleasantly surprised when Hunk quietly rolled out of bed and made his way to one of the shower rooms. As he heard the sound of the shower turning on, Shiro directed his attention to the snoring figure on the top bunk.

             He grabbed a pillow off his bed, walked back over to where Lance was snoring peacefully, and started beating Lance with the pillow from down on the ground.

             “Get up Lance! I’m not gonna come up there and get you and if you’re late they’ll make your curfew the same as the Cadets!” Shiro hoped his threat would motivate Lance to at least _start_ to wake up. Unfortunately that didn’t seem the case as Lance didn’t even twitch at the feeling of a pillow beating against his face. As Shiro groaned at the sleeping boy above him, Keith walked out from the bathroom, dressed and ready for the day.

             In Keith’s hand was one of the plastic cups the camp supplied in the bathroom. Shiro looked curiously at the cup.

             “What’s that for?” Shiro asked.

             “You sounded like you needed some help.” Was all Keith said as he handed the cup to Shiro and then climbed up onto the top bunk sitting next to Lance’s head. Keith held out his hand for the cup and Shiro hesitantly handed it to him.

             “Keith how cold is that water? Don’t you think throwing that on his face is a little harsh?” Shiro often found himself trying to be the voice of reason among these boys.

             “Yeah you’re right, I really shouldn’t throw it on his face.” A small frown formed on Keith’s face, but it quickly morphed into a mischievous smirk, “That’s why I’m not going to dump it on his _face_.” With that, Keith dumped the freezing cold cup of water all over Lance’s crotch. Lance bolted upright with a yelp and looked to the wet spot on his pants.

             “What the fuck?! Keith!” Lance went to grab for Keith who just slid down the ladder laughing before running out of the cabin.

             “Don’t forget to find me in the common area at eight!” Shiro called out to Keith as he ran off to get breakfast. He then turned his attention to Lance who was finally climbing out of bed. As Lance walked past Shiro mumbling grumpily, he received a reassuring pat on the back from Shiro. As Lance got dressed and Hunk emerged from the shower, Shiro decided it was safe enough to leave the two to catch up and head to breakfast himself.

* * *

          Lance looked around at the group surrounding him in the small area in the forest where his group had chosen to settle down for today’s activities. Along with him, Shiro, Keith and Hunk, there was another group of four boys from the neighboring cabin, and six girls from two other cabins. However, Lance was curious as to who the one boy sitting between all the girls was. He’d never seen him before and looked a little young to be in this group, but he really knew he was just annoyed at how well this kid got along with the girls. There were also three other counselors all sitting with Shiro. They were about to start their first day activities: icebreakers. Lance hated icebreakers. He didn’t really want to get to know all these people, he just wanted to kick but in the challenges and go swimming.

             “Ok everyone! My name is Shiro! I’m the senior counselor of this group so let me start of with a brief explanation for any of you that might be new,” Lance rolled his eyes “Keep the attitude down Lance there are some new campers in this group. Anyway, As you know the camp is divided into three groups, ours is the Paladins. There are also two more teams the camp is divided into regardless of age, the Lions and the Mechas. Throughout the summer there are different competitions between these two teams within each age group. We are on Team Lion.” A few of the returning campers from the other cabins cheered at that. One was even wearing one of the “Team Lion” Camp shirts from last year.

             “The people sitting here are you personal team, named after the senior counselor, which would be me. So you will all be referred to as Team Shiro if you ever get lost and need to find us. And speaking of teams, that what this whole first day is going to be dedicated to. Team building.” There was a chorus of groans from around the circle.

             “Oh come on guys! We all have to do them so let’s just get them over with so we can do something more fun late!” One of the girl counselors rang in with a happy smile. Lance recognized her somewhat, but she must’ve only just become a counselor, since the last time he saw her Lance swore she was in the pie eating contest against Hunk.

             “Right! To start we’re simply going to introduce ourselves and share one fun fact. Then we’ll move onto a game. To start I’m Shiro, and I still have all of my old McDonald’s happy meal toys saved in a box in the back of my closet.” The entire group erupted with laughter. Lance never knew how Shiro always had a new fact every year. Sometimes he thought that maybe Shiro just made them all up.

             The game proceeded around the circle, introducing each of the campers that were already friends with one another. Finally they came up to where Lance was sitting next to Keith and Hunk.

             “Alright everyone, my name is Lance. And thanks to a certain asshole I woke up to an ice cold dick this morning!” Lance glared over to Keith next to him, still bitter about his wake up call this morning. Most of the people in the circle laughed at the”fun fact”, a few of the campers including the younger boy made a unsettled face, and Shiro looked like a disappointed father.

             “Lance, really?”

             “What? I thought it was a good fact.” Lance replied to Shiro without once stopping his angry staring contest with Keith.

             “Alright let’s just keep going.” Shiro said with a huff, looking to Keith for some help and praying the two boys wouldn’t start arguing now.

             “Fine. My name’s Keith. And I woke up gagging this morning thanks to someone farting in his sleep!” Keith yelled at Lance who looked genuinely offended.

             “I do not!”

             “Than who else made the bunk bed smell of rotten eggs!?”

             “Both of you stop right now or I’ll confine you both to the cabin!” With the threat of forcing both boys to stay together the whole day, Shiro was able to quickly shut both Lance and Keith up, hopefully for good.

             “...So moving on, I’m Hunk! And even though I love to cook and eat, one food I actually hate is milk! Which, I think is pretty weird, right?” Hunk’s goofy smile and friendliness quickly melted away any tension the previous argument may have cause. And the introductions continued to move on.

             Lance had mostly stopped paying attention to all these introductions but was brought back into this “game” of theirs when the young boy he hadn’t recognized spoke.

             “Uh, hi. I’m Pidge, and I like to program computers in my free time.”

             “Wow! You must be really smart then, huh?” The girl next to him, who Lance knew as Casey, asked smiling at Pidge who shrugged in response.

             “If you like computers, aren’t you a little, y’know, out of your element here?” Lance asked only for Keith to swat at his arm and mumble “don’t be fucking rude”. Pidge pouted grumpily and crossed his arms over his chest.

             “Well yeah, that’s kind why my parents made me go here. They said I needed time away from a computer screen and in the outdoors. So here I am.” Lance accepted that answer and went back to thinking of new ammunition for his next argument with Keith.

* * *

 

             “Alright, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s move onto our first game. We’re going to be doing the human knot.” Lance let out a low groan along with Keith and a few other campers, but the majority of them seemed to not know of this particularly annoying game.

             “Alright so I’m going to need everyone to stand up and hold hands with the people standing next to you. Then you’re going to let go of one hand and reach across to grab someone’s hand across from you. I’ll start by letting go with my left hand, the next person will do their right, then left, then so on. Eventually every person should be holding two hands and we will have created a knot. The aim of the game is to work together to untangle ourselves without letting go of hands. Alright, everyone ready? Then let’s start!”

             With a quick explanation of the rules, Team Shiro began their first of many challenges. Shiro had picked this game because it usually made for a few laughs and had been quite fun and simple for the younger campers he had worked with in the past. So it should work  fine with the older kids too, right?

* * *

 

             They have been playing this game for thirty minutes, and they have only untangled maybe a quarter of the campers. Shiro was beginning to think maybe this wasn’t the best game to pick.

             One of the older female campers somehow kept finding a way to press close to Shiro, and he wasn’t oblivious he knew why, but he figured the campers of this age group would be a least a little more mature.

             Keith and Lance were fighting so much amongst themselves they didn’t even notice when someone accidently fell on top of Lance. Lance had thought Keith had pushed him over, but because his arm was twisted and he couldn’t yell at him, Lance had bitten Keith to get his attention. Yes, Lance bit Keith, like a mature adult. Which then caused another whole yelling fight.

             Hunk had almost toppled over the entire group but thankfully Shiro and another counsellor that had been untangled were able to balance everyone out again. Hunk however ended up hurting his ankle and was currently sitting outside the circle, laughing at everyone else struggling.

             “Who just touched by butt?!”

             “Nobody want’s to touch your butt Lance!”

             “I beg to differ there are plenty of people who want to touch my butt!”

             “Nobody here wants to touch your ass!”

             “Then who touched it?!”

             “That’s your own hand you idiot!” It was Pidge who finally broke the current argument between Lance and Keith. Shiro hadn’t even realized where Pidge was. Somehow Pidge had ended up crouched on the ground twisted in his own personal knot, right in between Lance and Keith.

             “Oh hey, you’re right!” Lance twisted around to see his own hand twisted behind his back holding onto Keith’s hand next to him, “Wait! That means you touched my butt too!”

             “I didn’t touch your butt!” The whole group groaned when Keith jerked his arm just too far back and the whole group ended up falling over for real this time. Officially ending the game.

             Everyone moaned in pain, but the muffled groan coming from behind Keith made him turn around to see Pidge cradling his head.

             “Hey, are you ok? Sorry I didn’t even see you down there.” Keith helped to younger boy to sit up who just nodded.

             “Yeah I’m fine, I’m just grossed out over the fact that his ass was on my head.” Pidge motioned over to Lance who scowled. The entire group laughed, even Lance who was nursing a sore ass.

             “Alright so maybe that wasn’t the best game to play, but hey, at least we learned that we aren’t good at untangling knots as a team. Anyway, it’s time we moved on to the final part of our morning. It’s a tradition that since we are your counselors, you should be able to trust us, and we can trust you. So each of you is going to get one question, and all four of us counsellors will have to answer it honestly. The only rule is that if one of us asks for something to be kept secret, you have to keep it. Understand?” The campers all nodded and started with what Lance referred to as “counselor interrogation”.

             Most of the questions were jokes or just plain boring. Have you ever had sex? Have you drank alcohol before? What’s your biggest fear? Who was your first kiss? All those kinds of things. Keith thought his question was brilliant, having asked if the counselors had favorite campers. He hoped he could get Shiro to admit Keith was his favorite over Lance. He was disappointed when Shiro answered with, “Currently it’s Hunk because you two are annoying.”

             “Are you currently in love with someone? Like right now?” It was Pidge’s question, and the final one. It had certainly gotten everyone else interested.

             “Yes, I have a great boyfriend.” The newer counselor answered hiding a smile behind her hand.

             “No, not right now.” The girl beside her answered.

             “Nope, me neither.” The boy beside Shiro replied. Everyone looked expectantly at Shiro who had hesitated to answer.

             “Uh, yeah. I do.” Came Shiro’s answer.

             “What?!” Lance and Keith both yelled shell shocked.

             “You never told us!”

             “I thought we were friends man!” Keith and Lance has started yelling at Shiro who only held up his hand to silence them.

             “That’s because it’s none of your business. Now since that’s the last question I say we all go get some lunch! You have the rest of the afternoon off to swim in the lake or do whatever you want! Dinner’s at six and-”

             “Pidge! What are you doing here!?” Shiro’s sentence was cut short as everyone turned their attention to Allura walking over angrily to the group.

             “Aw crap!” Pidge said with a groan. After that Pidge stood up quickly and ran off towards to the lake.

             “Pidge! Pidge! Oh damn it, not again.” Allura had started to run after Pidge, but only to stop short after realizing he was too far gone.

             “Allura? What’s wrong? Why are you looking for Pidge?” Shiro asked coming up behind her as his team talked amongst themselves confused.

             “Pidge is one of my campers! I’ve been running all around and I was panicking trying to-”

             “Wait Pidge isn’t even in the Paladins?”

             “See! I knew that kid looked too young!” Lance chimed in from behind the two.

             “Yes, Pidge is in the Alteans, but is rather upset about not being with the older kids. After all I’m sure you’ve noticed, but Pidge is very smart and gets angry with the younger campers. Oh well, I’ll make sure to fix this later tonight. I’ll see you later, ok Shiro?” Allura called as she ran off back to her own group. Shiro sighed and returned to his own group.

             “Well looks like we all didn’t realize Pidge wasn’t in our group, but hey we still made a new friend! So as I was saying, Dinner is as six, and the Paladin’s curfew is 10:30 pm sharp! No go have fun!” Lance and Keith bolted off immediately with Hunk in tow to the mess hall for lunch. The other campers and counselors followed at a much slower pace leaving Shiro some time to collect his thoughts.

             With a final deep breath Shiro decided to go to the medical building, he really needed some medicine for this stress headache.

* * *

 

             It was around 10:15 at night when Shiro heard a knock on the cabin door. Even though it wasn’t curfew yet, Lance, Keith, and Hunk were already back inside and were sitting at the small card table, about to start a game of Uno until lights out. The counsellor in each cabin decided when lights out was, and Shiro usually gave them till around 11.

             Shiro set down the crossword puzzle he had been working on down and walked over to the door. He opened it to find Pidge standing there looking impatient.

             “Come on let me in! Allura’s been watching me like a hawk and will probably be here soon!”

             “Pidge? Why are you here? The Altean cabins are all the way on the other side of the clearing and your curfew was 15 minutes ago.”

             “Exactly why you need to hurry and let me in before someone finds me!”

             “I’m not helping you sneak out, you need to go back.” Shiro’s voice was stern and he folded his arms over his chest, doing his best to be intimidating; he’s been told it’s not hard for him to look frightening. What Shiro wasn’t expecting was a dangerous smirk to appear on Pidge’s still childish face.

             “I’ll tell Allura that you said you were in love. I’m sure you don’t really want her to hear that right now, do you? After all, I wonder what will happen once she starts pestering you to tell her who the lucky girl is.” The evil smirk on Pidge’s face grew ever wider as Shiro felt the back of his neck heat up.

             “How did you find out?” Shiro said in a low whisper hoping the three teens inside wouldn’t hear.

             “My punishment for running off was that Allura had to babysit me all night after dinner. It wasn’t hard to figure it out once she told me how close you two are. Plus the minute she showed up you looked like god himself was talking to you.” Pidge explained with an arrogant smile. Shiro groaned and looked around for any signs of other counselors, but saw none.

             “Fine, but you’re leaving the minute anyone comes looking for you.”

             “Deal!” Pidge pushed his way into the cabin and walked over to where the others were just about to start their Uno game.

             “How’d you get Shiro to let you stay?” Keith asked dealing out another hand for Pidge.

             “I have my ways. Not that I’m gonna share anytime soon.” Lance frowned and began prodding Pidge for information of how to mess with Shiro, but Pidge stood firm. As the game continued it became more and more clear that Pidge was not only a devil in disguise, a genius, and a very sneaky kid, but he was also way too good at Uno for it to be fair. And Keith was not happy with this.

             “There’s no way you’re no cheating! You’ve won three games in a row now and all of them have ended way too fast!” Keith was standing up now angrily yelling over another game lost to Pidge.

             “I’m not cheating! You guys are just very predictable. Besides you’re just made that I keep using my plus 4 card on you.” Pidge was barely paying attention to Keith, more interested in the lesson Hunk was giving on how to shuffle cards like a pro.

             “Even without those cards I couldn’t win because you cheat! If Lance and Hunk couldn’t beat you either, that’s the only way!”

             “Dude calm down, it’s only Uno.” Lance chimed in actually trying to be reasonable this time, if only because he had technically come in third place ahead of Keith.

             “No! He’s cheating there’s no way I could lose that badly each time!”

             “Did you ever think you just suck and that’s why you lost so badly? Seems like a pretty reasonable explanation to me.” Pidge was laughing to himself and high fived Lance to his left. Keith was just about to snap, and as Pidge continued to laugh, Keith prepared to tackle the smirk right off his face.

             That is until Shiro decided to step in and physically hold Keith back.

             “Keith calm down! Ok, game is over and I’m calling lights out!”

             “But it’s not even 11 yet!” Lance whined childishly.

             “I don’t care, you all need to cool down. Pidge, go back to your own cabin, and you better not tell anyone you were here.” Shiro looked over to where Pidge had been only to find the smaller boy starting to climb out the back window.

             “Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone! About this or that _other_ secret!” Pidge called quietly as he slipped out the window and back to his own cabin.

             “What other secret?” Keith asked as Shiro finally let go of him.

             “Nope that’s it. Everyone get in bed. And if I have to get you up tomorrow the same way I did today, Lance, I won’t be happy!”

             “Yes dad!” Lance called jokingly from the sink where he was brushing his teeth. Hunk laughed loudly from his position already in bed and Keith just rolled his eyes as he sunk into bed. Shiro laid back down in his bed and with a final sigh, turned of the light beside his bed and fell into a much needed deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said this was unbeta'd so if anyone would be interested in being a beta for this story please message me on tumblr. My username is down-into-underland. I could also use ideas to help with the camp aspect of this story since I've only done small camps like twice and they have never been a long sleep away camp like this. So again if you're interested message me! Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> My first voltron fanfic and I had this idea and I really wanted a story where the whole crew could just bond together in a nice happy place. Sorry if it's a little boring but I just wanted to get an introduction out of the way and make sure the lay out was a least somewhat clear. If you have any questions or comments I'd love feedback!
> 
> Follow me on tumblr: down-into-underland.tumblr.com


End file.
